1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a stopper system, a stopper, and a container having the stopper for supplying various kinds of fluids such as, chemicals, cosmetics, medicines, detergents, foods, beverages, adhesives, paints, inks, etc., into a container, plugging the container and further discharging the fluid in the container.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description of related art sets forth the inventors' knowledge of related art and certain problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
Conventionally, as a stopper system for supplying various kinds of fluids such as chemicals, cosmetics, medicines, detergents, foods, beverages, adhesives, paints, inks, etc., into a container, plugging the container, and further discharging the fluid in the container, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-202383 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”) discloses the following stopper system.
The stopper system disclosed in Patent Document 1 is applied mainly to an ink pack in an ink-jet printer, etc., and has a structure provided with a cylindrical member fixed to an ink container and having an ink supply port, and a seal member fitted in the cylindrical member to seal a communication between an inside of the ink container and the outside thereof
When discharging the ink in the container, the ink in the ink container is guided to the outside through an ink discharge pin inserted in an ink supply port via the seal member. Also, the seal member is made of an elastic body, and therefore, when the ink discharge pin is inserted in the ink supply port through the seal member, the seal member can tightly come into contact with the ink discharge pin and further a pull-out mark of the ink discharge pin can be prevented from remaining therein.
On the other hand, in supplying ink to the ink container, for example, after supplying ink through the ink supply port of a cylindrical member, when the seal member is fitted in the cylindrical member, there are such problems that entry of air into the container and/or leakage of fluid therefrom occur. Specifically, since the seal member is made of an elastic member having an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the cylindrical member, the operation for fitting the seal member in the cylindrical member is extremely troublesome, which readily causes entry of air and/or leakage of the fluid.
For this reason, in practice, it has been performed such that in a state in which the seal member is fitted in the cylindrical member of the ink container in advance, facing the bottom portion of the ink container upward, ink is supplied from an unsealed part of the bottom portion of the ink container, and thereafter the bottom portion is sealed.
However, with such ink supply method, in order to prevent entry of air, fluid has to be filled in a vacuum state. This causes problems that a large-sized device is required, increasing the facility investment, which in turn increases a product cost. In addition, since ink is supplied to the very end of the bottom portion of the ink container, there are problems that the ink overflows when sealing the bottom portion of the ink container or sealing failure occurs when the sealing is failed, causing product defects.
These problems occur not only when supplying ink to the container but also when supplying various kinds of fluids such as, chemicals, cosmetics, medicines, detergents, foods, beverages, adhesives, paints, etc., to the container.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. For example, certain features of the described embodiments of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages and/or providing certain advantages, such as, e.g., disadvantages and/or advantages discussed herein, while retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.